(Minghui.org)

Name: Liu DongxianChinese Name: 刘冬仙Gender: FemaleAge: 72City: ChangdeProvince: HunanOccupation: Internal medicine physicianDate of Death: May 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 2016Most Recent Place of Detention: Hunan Province Women’s Prison

A woman in Changde City, Hunan Province, endured relentless torture for not renouncing Falun Gong when she was serving a nine-year term for her faith. She died in May 2024, only a few days after she was released. She was 72.

Ms. Liu Dongxian used to be the chief physician of internal medicine at Taoyuan County Red Cross Hospital. Despite being a physician herself, she struggled with many ailments, including inflammation of the gall bladder, stomach problems, heart disease, and Meniere’s syndrome. After she took up Falun Gong in April 1999, all her health issues disappeared.

After the Chinese communist regime started the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Liu was repeatedly targeted for not renouncing her faith. She served a labor camp term of one year and nine months and three prison sentences totaling 16 years. The authorities monitered her phone and everyday life, and she often noticed she was being followed whenever she went out. The hospital where she worked demoted her from her position as physician and had her do miscellaneous tasks at a drug warehouse. Her salary and bonus were suspended and she was only paid 300 yuan a month to cover the most basic living expenses.

Multiple Arrests and Forced Labor Camp Term of One Year and Nine Months

For doing Falun Gong exercises at a local practitioner’s home, Ms. Liu was arrested on February 3, 2000; detained for a month; and fined 2,000 yuan. She was arrested again on July 19, 2000, when she went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was detained for another month.

Ms. Liu was taken back into custody on January 16, 2001, and detained for five days. As soon as she was released, she set off to Beijing to appeal, only to be arrested and taken to a detention facility in the Haidian District in Beijing. Two guards shocked her with electric batons for five hours and beat her.

Ms. Liu was given one year and nine months at the Baimalong Forced Labor Camp. The guards forced her to sit on a small stool or stand for long hours. They also handcuffed her and hung her up by her wrists, until she fainted. She held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was force-fed. The guards wouldn’t stop the force-feeding even when she almost suffocated. She had severe gastric bleeding due to the hunger strike. When the guards then made her take drugs, her blood pressure shot up to a systolic pressure of 300 mmHg, when normal is 120 mmHg or lower.

On November 5, 2002, shortly after she was released, she was forced to sign a surveillance agreement. The police and 610 Office told her that, if she violated the terms, her husband would have to pay a 20,000-yuan fine and her brother would be fired from his job.

Ms. Liu was arrested twice more, on January 2, 2003, and in February 2004. She was held in a brainwashing center for one month and six months, respectively.

First Prison Term of Three Years

Zhou Guicheng and Zheng Yunqing of the Taoyuan County 610 Office and Wen Chengguang and Hu Guanghua of the Taoyuan County Domestic Security Division broke into Ms. Liu’s home around 3 p.m. on August 28, 2006. She held a hunger strike to protest after being taken to the Taoyuan County Detention Center. The guards force-fed her until she began to vomit blood.

Ms. Liu started another hunger strike on February 10, 2007, that lasted for over three months. The guards force-fed her every day. She quickly lost half of her weight, going from 65 kg (about 143 lbs) to 35 kg (77 lbs). Even though she was on the verge of death, the authorities still held her in custody.

The Taoyuan County Court heard Ms. Liu’s case on April 3, 2007. Judges Xiong Xianming, Wei Yunliang, Nie Min, and Long Zhijun sentenced her to three years.

To try to force her to renounce Falun Gong, the guards arranged for the most vicious inmates to torture her. They forced her to stand or squat for long hours and once kept her handcuffed behind her back for five days. When it was -5°C (-23°F) outside, they stripped her naked and forced her to stand in front of an open window for 15 minutes.

In another extreme incident, they denied her use of the restroom use for seven days. Her clothes from her chest down were soaked with urine. If the guard found urine on the floor, they would force her to lick it dry. She wasn’t allowed to change clothes either.

As a result of the torture, her hands festered and turned dark, but the guards continued to force her to stand at night and not sleep. Her legs and feet were so swollen that she couldn’t fit into her shoes and the skin on her feet peeled off. She was only allowed to sleep for half an hour or an hour every day. Due to the sleep deprivation, she often fell down.

In addition to the physical torture, she was under tremendous mental pressure. The inmates threatened to torture her to death and kill her two sons if they didn’t get their terms reduced when she refused to renounce Falun Gong.

When she still held firm to her faith after five months of intense torture, the guards transferred her to the production division and forced her to do unpaid labor no matter how weak she was.

In the winter, the guards stripped her naked and forced her to stand outdoors every day. They also took photos of her and then told others that she had a mental condition. She was unable to care for herself for several months after the torture.

Second Prison Term of Four Years

Ms. Liu was seized by the police around 5 p.m. on April 19, 2011, when she was out talking to people about Falun Gong. She appeared in the Taoyuan County Court on June 9 and was sentenced to four years around August.

In the Hunan Province Women’s Prison, she was held in a division designated to torture Falun Gong practitioners, who had to stand for long hours of standing and were deprived of sleep and denied restroom use. They were also forced to watch propaganda smearing Falun Gong.

Death after Serving Third Prison Term of Nine Years

Ms. Liu was arrested again in December 2016, along with three other practitioners, for raising awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong. After she was released on bail, Wen Chenghua and Fu Zhengquan of the Domestic Security Division, Xiong Jun of the Taoyuan County Court, and people from Ms. Liu’s residential committee all pressed her to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. She refused to comply.

The Taoyuan County Court sentenced Ms. Liu to nine years on March 13, 2018, and the Changde City Intermediate Court rejected her appeal in early July 2018. She was taken to the Hunan Province Women’s Prison, where she was again forced to stand motionless for long hours and only allowed to move her arms to eat or drink. She had to report to and get permission from the head inmate before she could use the restroom. Her time to take showers was limited as well.

Torture illustration: Standing

In January 2022, the prison moved the high-security division used to detain Falun Gong practitioners to the fifth floor that had a total of 18 cells. Ms. Liu was put in a cell with practitioners who had dire physical conditions from long-term torture for refusing to renounce Falun Gong.

Due to Ms. Liu’s heart condition and high blood pressure, she was released in May 2024, 19 months before her term expired. She died just days later.

Related Reports:

Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured at the High-Security Division in Hunan Province Women’s Prison

Four Hunan Women Given Heavy Prison Sentences for Their Faith

Ms. Liu Dongxian of Taoyuan County Tortured with Force-Feeding